Orecchiette con pomodorini e rucola (Orecchiette with Cherry Tomatoes and Arugula)

Here’s my candidate for the quickest and easiest pasta of all time, orecchiette con pomodorini e rucola, or Orecchiette Pasta with Cherry Tomatoes and Arugula.

As many of you will know, orecchiette, literally meaning “little ears”, is perhaps the most iconic fresh pasta of Italy’s Puglia region. Many if not most people associate this pasta with Puglia’s arguably best known pasta dish, the hefty and comforting orecchiette con cime di rapa, but you can dress orecchiette with any number of condimenti.

A particularly lovely way to dress them, especially in the warmer months, is with a sauce of cherry tomatoes, just lightly wilted in garlic and oil, and fresh arugula leaves. If you like things spicy, you can throw in a little hot pepper. And if you’re a cheese-lover, you can add that to the mix.

Orecchiette con pomodorini e rucola is light and refreshing. And super quick: you can literally make the sauce in the time it takes for the pasta to cook. That means you can have dinner on the table in 20 minutes or less, depending on how long it takes for the water to come to the boil, which makes orecchiette con pomodorini e rucola an ideal choice for weeknight meals or just those times when you want something light, quick and easy. And did I mention delicious?

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 450g (1 lb) orecchiette pasta
• 500g (1 lb) cherry or grape tomatoes, cut in half
• 1 bunch/package (about 150g/5 oz) fresh arugula, roughly chopped if the leaves are large
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and slightly crushed
• olive oil
• salt

Optional:

• 1 peperoncino (hot red peppers) or a pinch of red pepper flakes
• Grated cheese (cacioricotta, pecorino, parmigiano-reggiano or ricotta salata)

Directions

Bring a large pot of well salted water to the boil and throw in the pasta. Cook until al dente.

In the meantime, in a large skillet or wok, sauté the garlic gently in abundant olive oil and along with the peperoncino if you like things spicy. When the garlic just begins to brown around the edges, discard it along with the hot pepper if using.

Add the tomatoes to the pan and let them sauté until they just begin to wilt, seasoning with salt. If your pasta isn’t done yet, turn off the heat.

When the pasta is done, drain and add to the pan, along with the arugula. (At this point you can also add the grated cheese if using.) Toss over lively heat for a few moments until the pasta and its sauce are well mixed and any excess liquid has cooked off.

Serve right away, topped with a drizzle of olive oil and, if you like, with additional grated cheese on the side for those who want it.

Notes

When shopping for orecchiette, look for the kind that looks like this:

Real orecchiette are not extruded like commercial pasta but rather stretched across a flat surface. This results in a rather thick and somewhat irregularly shaped pasta, with a wrinkled surface, all of which gives orecchiette a wonderfully chewy texture. You can usually find real orecchiette in Italian delis, online and sometimes at more upscale supermarkets. What you want to avoid are the “orecchiette” produced by the big commercial pasta makers, which is what you’re likely to find in the supermarket around the corner (assuming you don’t live in Italy, of course). These are basically just ordinary extruded pasta shaped to resemble (more or less) orecchiette. Meh.

Of course, the best orecchiette are homemade. You make them with a simple dough of semola remacinata (finely ground hard durum wheat flour) and water. You roll the dough out into logs, then you cut small pieces from the log and stretch them out across a wooden board, typically with the blunt side of a knife. If need be, you shape them by wrapping each orecchietta around your thumb.

If you’re ever in Bari, head to the Strada Arco Basso, where you can see old ladies making orecchiette on the street, as demonstrated in this video:

It’s all very touristy but a lot of fun. At least I imagine so. Sadly, when I was in Bari and went to the Strada Arco Basso I found orecchiette out on display but, perhaps because it was rather chilly that day, the ladies weren’t at work—my second disappointment after finding Al Sorso Preferito closed.

One day I plan to blog on making orecchiette at home, but first I need to master the process. Mine tend to turn out much too big, more like orecchiette giganti or giant orecchiette—a shape that actually does exist but isn’t standard. What can I say, I have large hands…

Other pastas you can use

All this said, in a pinch this cherry tomato and arugula sauce will go with other pasta shapes as well. Look for those with a similar concave shape that will catch this chunky sauce. Shapes like conchiglie (“shells”) (NB: look for the regular sized ones, not large shells for stuffing), pipe rigate or lumache (“snails”) all work well. Personally I’d avoid the faux orecchiette mentioned above. Even as a regular pasta, they’re not very appealing.

Other ingredients

If you want to add cheese, cacioricotta would perhaps be the most typically Puglian choice, but here in the US at least I haven’t found it either in stores or online. Pecorino or, for a milder flavor, parmigiano-reggiano are typical alternatives. Although never mentioned in other recipes, I would also imagine ricotta salata from Sicily would also work nicely. You can add the grated cheese to the pan to melt into the sauce during the final tossing, or you can just serve it on the side. Or if you really like cheese, both. Personally I prefer this dish without any cheese at all.

Look for small leaved arugula, the kind sometimes marketed as ‘baby’ arugula here in the US. The leaves are more tender and have less of a ‘bite’ than large leaf arugula. If the more mature large leaf arugula is all you can find, then roughly chop it before adding them. Although I prefer the freshness of adding the arugula at the last minute, if you find the taste a bit too bitter, you can do as most recipes call for and cook them, either in the sauce or along with the pasta, for a several minutes.

As for the olive oil, extra virgin is, as always, a must. Preferably a nice deep green fruity oil from Puglia if you can find it.(If you’ve ever been to Puglia, you will notice the countryside is absolutely teeming with ancient olive trees everywhere you look.) If not, try one from Sicily, which produces similarly rich and fruity olive oils.

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